ReadWriteEnterprise

The iPad isn't just a hot new consumer device, it's also an increasingly popular tool for business. Each week we take a look at the new or updated business apps for the iPad, and highlight trends in how tablets are being used in the enterprise.

This week week we look at Yammer's upgraded mobile app, project management apps for the iPad and new mobility upgrades from two enterprise content management providers.

Reports that Apple is now beating Microsoft in market cap, revenue and profit were tempered by one fact: Microsoft has sold more Windows 7 licenses since its release than all iOS products combined during the same period. Whether enterprise or consumer, the Microsoft still own the operating system market. But all that could change.

According to Gartner, OSX and Linux are the fastest growing desktop and server operating systems, respectively. "Among client OSs, Mac OS was the fastest-growing subsegment in 2010 as the unit shipments of Mac desktop/laptop devices saw strong sales, although from a much-smaller basis," the firm reports. Update: Apple's total marketshare, according to Gartner, is still only 1.7% (up from 1.6%), but that's of all OSes including servers. Gartner didn't release numbers broken down by subsegment. Quantcast estimated that 10.9% of Internet users used OSX last year according to Ars Technica.

Miami University's Augmented Reality Research Group developed an Android app that helps librarians find mis-shelved books and determine where they should go. It's a simple idea, and one that could save librarians hours of drudgery (or cost many temps their jobs, but that's another story). Sounds a lot more useful than virtual mirrors for trying on sunglasses, doesn't it? As I've written before, I've long been of the mind that AR will be more useful in the workplace than as a consumer technology. And based on this poll, most of you can imagine uses for AR in your workplace. So when will we start seeing more business-focused AR?

On May 17th and 18th, technology thinkers such as Jaron Lanier, Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge and Will Wright and many more and will gather at are2011 in Santa Clara, CA to discuss AR's present and future. Workplace AR will be among the topics discussed.

I won't be able to attend the event, but Sterling and Vinge were kind enough to share some thoughts on the future of AR in the workplace with us in advance of the event.

Project management seems like an obvious use case for iPads, so we were surprised to see a relatively small number of professional project management applications. But we found a few. For this article we decided to focus only on native iPad applications - we'll look at tablet-optimized Web apps another time.

Which of these is your favorite? Are there any you think we should have included?

Last week we looked a bit at how Apple products are penetrating the enterprise. The iPhone and iPad continue to be popular as employees bring their own devices to work. But what about Apple about desktops? We've seen some evidence that Apple is trying to get into the enterprise game, but it has also discontinued its Xserve line.

What about your company? Are you a Windows shop, or do you use other systems?

Enterprises are getting more complex with virtualization and the advent of cloud computing - which is leading to changes that are making room for next generation networks. The Strategic Network Group says new networks must be evaluated according to three criteria: portfolios, partners and processes.

Revolution Analytics just released a new version of its suite of R-based statistical analysis tools Revolution R Enterprise 4.3. Significant new features include the ability to import data files from SPSS, a new predictive analytics algorithm for big data and an installer for Windows. Revolution R already supported importing from SAS files.

The new version is still free for academics, or for those participating in Kaggle data science competitions.

Enterprise social networking service Yammer today released a new version of its iOS app. The new version adds threaded discussions, private messaging and full Retina Display support. Also, users will now be able to view documents from within the app.

Intel's acquisition of McAfee last year puzzled many analysts. We said it was about securing the Internet of Things.

In an interview with Forbes' Andy Greenberg, McAfee CEO David Dewalt talks about the purchase and explains why it happened. Dewalt emphasizes the IoT angle, but more notably emphasizes that the security innovations will happen at the software level, not the hardware level. "We're not embedding anything into the silicon," he says. "What we're doing is utilizing features that exist today with the technologies McAfee has to secure the stack in a way that's never been done before."

Paul Greenberg announced this week a fun new project called CRM Idol that will have 60 small CRM-related companies go up in front of a panel of judges and be reviewed.

The problem Greenberg outlines is one that we're familiar with here at ReadWriteWeb: bloggers, journalists, analysts, venture capitalists, etc. are inundated with pitches from small companies. Many of these companies could be great, but there are too many to sift through. This will help get some of these companies in front of a larger audience.